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Yakuza: Like A Dragon Personality Stats - how to raise Passion, Confidence, Charisma, Kindness, Intellect, & Style

by RPG Site Staff on 09 November, 2020

Yakuza: Like a Dragon borrows a lot of features from other classic RPGs in its transition to turn-based combat - and one system ripped straight out of many similar games are Personality Traits. Like a Dragon’s personality stats are divided into six key categories: Passion, Confidence, Charisma, Kindness, Intellect, and Style. 

Like in the Persona series, these personality traits can be a level - in this instance between 1 and 10 - and each level is assigned a description - for instance Level 2 Charisma is described as ‘Tactless’, while Level 4 Passion is “Fervent”. 

Your Personality Stats are important as they govern quite a few different things in-game. For one, you might only be able to talk to some NPCs to open up certain options if you have the necessary stat - such as Charisma for charming them. These stats also open up more options in things like the company management mini-game, and help you to resist debuffs. That means you’ll be required to level up personality stats and hit a certain rank in order to unlock certain high-end jobs. 

As such, it’s important to know how to raise your personality stats - and on this page we’re going to detail the various in-game methods to do this, broken down by each personality trait. Just click on the one you want to raise:

Passion  /  Confidence  /  Charisma  /  Kindness  /  Intellect  /  Style

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How to raise your Passion stat quickly

There’s a few methods to level up your Passion reliably in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. One you’ll naturally encounter is in dialogue choices throughout the story and side quests - hot-headed answers will often net you a raise to your Passion stat.

With that said, there are other ways you can raise passion quickly and in a more focused manner. Here we list each of them, along with any other details you need…

Boosting Passion at School

Six of the exams at the Ounabara Vocational School offer boosts to your Passion personality trait when first passed. They are as follows:

Read a Passion-boosting Book

Taking part in the can-collecting litter mini-game earns you points that can be spent with the same NPC. This is a special shop full of unique items, including a book. The Between Thrill and Passion book costs 80,000 points. It’ll increase your Passion when read. 

To do this, find Kang at the Can Collecting mini-game in the south of the map and play to earn the points, then exchange at his shop.

Pay for a Honk to raise Passion

Near the Survive Bar where you and your gang hang out, there’s a small alleyway that cuts between two of the roads in the Bar District. In this Alleyway a “Honk Honk Girl” NPC can be found. She’ll offer you the “pleasure of a honk-honk” for 10,000 Yen.

Pay the 10,000 Yen to the Honk-Honk girl and the screen will blank out… your HP and MP will be restored, but you’ll also gain +10 Passion. This isn’t very cost-effective early on, but becomes more so later in the game as money becomes more plentiful. You can only do this every so often, so you can’t just spam it.

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

Once you unlock the Part-time Hero option in your main menu, you’ll find three categories of quests within. Challenge quests are passively tracked as you play, and completing them can earn you stat increases including to passion. 

  • In the Adventure Challenge Quests, Passion raises can be had off crafting or strengthening armor, walking long distances, and experiencing the full menu of certain restaurants.
  • In the Battle quests, defeating large numbers of enemies, acquiring certain types of weapons and defeating enemies with certain jobs will raise passion.
  • In the mini-games section, passion raises are tied to performance in Dragon Kart, Karaoke, Pachislot and Virtua Fighter 2 and 5 in arcades.
  • Finally, persuading Shareholders in the Company Management mini-game gives passion boosts.

How to raise your Confidence stat quickly

Your Confidence stat is another important personality trait in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, carrying with it resistance to the sleep debuffs as well as unlocking more to do around certain job classes and within the company management mini-game.

You can of course level up Confidence by giving firm, confident answers to dialogue choices in the story. Beyond that, however, you can also raise it efficiently in a few other ways:

Raising Confidence by taking Tests

There are three exams at the Ounabara Vocational School that you can go to in-game that’ll boost your Confidence stat: 

Grab a Confidence self-help book

There’s a book in Like a Dragon that boosts your Confidence stat by 50 points - ‘Think and Grow Confident’. Get the book for a stat increase.

The book is available as a prize from either Shogi or the Batting Center - just play these mini-games to earn points, and then exchange those points for this key item with the NPC controlling the game. Batting is probably the quicker & easier of the two to get this book from, unless you’re a Shogi Savant. 

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

Once again, you can head to the Part-Time Hero quests in your menu and hit up the Challenges tab to find a variety of mini-quests that will increase your confidence when completed.

  • In the Adventure section, actions like talking to people, spending a lot of money and even experiencing the complete menu of some places you can eat like Meng Wu Yokohama will increase your Confidence.
  •  In the Battle Menu, you can get Confidence boosts by using the Poundmates Summon ability many times, and by summoning different characters. Additionally, getting more weapons for certain jobs and defeating certain enemy types will also boost your confidence stats.
  • In the mini-games quests, confidence can be raised with Golf, Darts, Gambling and Mahjong achievements.
  • Finally, the Company Management quests offer confidence boosts for spending huge amounts of company funds. 
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How to raise your Charisma stat quickly

The next important stat in Yakuza: Like a Dragon is Charisma. Like every stat, Charisma is part of the gateway between you and certain jobs and company management mini-game options, while also making you more resistant to the Fear status effect.

Aside from making shrewd, likeable choices in conversation dialogue to get extra charisma, there are a handful of ways you can level up your Charisma stat quickly by performing certain tasks or obtaining certain items. We describe them:

Raising Charisma at School

A handful of the tests you can take at the Ounabara Vocational School offer boosts to your Charisma stat the first time you complete them. These tests cost money, but if you pass, it’s a large and guaranteed boost. The tests are:

Read a book for extra Charisma

There’s a book you can read that’ll offer a permanent +50 Charisma boost. The book is called “You, Unleashed”, and is available from two places.

  • Firstly, you can get it from Kang - that’s the NPC behind the can-collecting mini-game. Earn enough points in the mini-game and then exchange those points with Kang for the book.
  • Alternatively, you can get the book from the Pachislot mini-game at PIA on Isezaki Road. You’ll need to earn 2500 in tokens, and then you can exchange for the book as a prize.

Pay special NPCs for Charisma boosts

There’s a handful of special social stat increasing NPCs who can appear at random on the map. This is expensive and not very cost-effective early on, but as money becomes plentiful, it makes more sense. A few of them can increase your Charisma stat:

  • A girl in the Hamanado Underground Shopping Center, around the Isezaki Road. For 50,000 Yen, she can increase your Charisma, Kindness or Passion.
  • A man in the Kamiuchi Station East area - he’s up the gated alleyway directly north of where the map text says ‘Carriage Highway’ - behind the big building. Once you can access this area, he can appear here and be paid 100,000 Yen to raise all stats, including Charisma, by 10.
  • There’s a woman in the south of Sotenburi who can raise Charisma, Confidence, and Passion for 50,000 Yen.
  • Finally, a woman in sunglasses appears in the back alley near Hotel Street in Kamurocho and can boost Charisma, Intellect, or Style for 30,000 Yen.

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

Once you unlock Part-Time Hero in the menu, you can track many passive quests from the ‘Challenges’ menu. Several of these quests reward you with Charisma Stat boosts upon completion. Here’s some examples of the kinds of things that raise your stat:

  • In the Adventure Menu, listening to party chat and chatter over dinner and opening safes offer Charisma raises.
  • For Battle missions, obtaining certain job weapons and defeating certain types of enemies raise Charisma.
  • In mini-games, hit up the Batting Cages or play Space Harrier or Super Hang-On to meet Charisma-raising achievements.
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How to raise your Kindness stat quickly

The next stat on deck is Kindness, which obviously just determines how… nice Ichiban is. Like other stats, Kindness will determine the availability of certain jobs and company management options. It also appropriately gives you resistance to the enragement debuff.

Naturally, you can level up Kindness by giving nice, kind-hearted answers to dialogue options. Beyond that, these are the ways you can raise Kindness fast:

Learn Kindness at school

Many of the tests at the Ounabara Vocational School give Ichiban bonuses to his Kindness stat. These tests cost money to make, but get the exam answers correct and you’ll get a Kindness boost:

Grab the Kindness teaching book

There’s one book in Yakuza: Like a Dragon that teaches Ichiban to be more kind. This book, The Poor Zoo”, is available in two ways.

First, you can get it from Kang as an exchange for points earned in the Can collecting mini-game. Alternatively, you can get it the same way from Shogi. The book gives you +50 Kindness. 

Pay a unique NPC to earn Kindness

Some stats have multiple NPCs that can give you stat boosts in exchange for cash, but Kindness sadly only has one. This NPC has a random chance of appearing every time you load into Yokosuka, so whenever you’re passing by her area, check if she’s there.

The NPC in question is a girl found in the Hamanado Undeground Shopping Center, right beneath the northern bit of the Isezaki Road. She wants 50,000 Yen, but for that she’ll boost your Kindness, Passion or Charisma.

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

The Part-Time Hero option in the main menu takes you through to an enormous list of potential quests to complete, and many of these quests can raise your Kindness stat quickly. The Challenge menu quests are split into categories and are all passive - so you’ll get their rewards as soon as you complete their objectives.

  • In the Adventure Menu, Kindness can be raised by finding loot and stashing lots of money, and growing and harvesting vegetables.
  • In the Battle section, Kindness is earned by registering enemies to the Sujimon database, acquiring certain types of weapon, and defeating certain types of enemies - primarily those with musical instruments. 
  • The minigame missions are related to the Can pick-up mini-game, Pachislot, winning on UFO Catchers and the classic SEGA arcade game Fantasy Zone.
  • Finally, scouting people in the company management mini-game can complete achievements for Kindness bonuses.

How to raise your Intellect stat quickly

Ichiman’s Intelligence is another stat in Yakuza: Like a Dragon - the higher his intellect, the better. Intellect as a stat makes you resistant to brainwashing status effects, but it’s also necessary for elements of company management. 

Responding to in-game dialogue prompts with things that show a little bit of smarts will of course raise your intelligence stat, but there are some other key methods for raising Intellect:

Boost your Intellect by going back to school

As you’d expect, a range of tests at the Vocational School will raise your Intellect stat. Each test costs money, and these are some of the more difficult ones, but completing them nets big Intelligence boosts.

Read a book to raise Intellect

Like all of the other social stats, there’s a key item which will raise your Intellect stat - a book called the Special Theory of Relative Brutality. It’s available as a prize from certain mini-games.

The book gives you a +50 boost to your Intellect, and it’s available for a costly 6000 points from the Batting mini-game. It can also be had through Shogi.

Pay for an Intellect boost from an NPC

Two NPCs can give Ichiban a raise to his Intellect stat - for a price. These NPCs appear at random, however - so you'll have to keep visiting their location and keeping an eye out for them.

  • A man, 'Uncle', can appear in the north of the Yokosuka map. He's behind Hidamari Castle, up an alleyway blocked by gates. After finishing the associated dungeon, you'll be able to get up here, where if he's present you can pay 100,000 Yen to boost all social stats by 10 points.
  • A woman in Kamurocho sometimes appears in an alleyway north of the Batting Cages. For 30,000 Yen, she can boost Intellect.

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

Part-time Hero unlocks from early in the game, and in the challenge section of this main menu option you’re able to see a bunch of constant quests for various tasks in the game - complete them for rewards - including boosts to your Intellect stat. Here’s an overview of what things boost Intellect:

  • In the Adventure section Collecting Insects, eating all of some restaurant menus and making Chinese Medicine at Survive can boost your Intellect.
  • For Battle missions, using attack-based items, using skills in battle, defeating certain types of enemies and acquiring certain types of weapons all level up Intellect.
  • In minigames, you’ll need to use your mind: you’ll get Intellect boosts for completing school qualifications, and for winning in Poker or Shogi.

How to raise your Style stat quickly

The final stat is style, which ultimately represents how knowledgeable you are about fashion. That doesn’t seem like the most useful thing for a Yakuza, but here we are. In Like a Dragon, it helps you resist certain status effects and of course plays into company management.

While it’s not exactly a very vocal trait, you can indeed boost your Style in conversation choices - by giving sound fashion advice or just generally saying things that are cool. Beyond that, you can also level up style in these ways:

Go to Fashion School

Okay, so, there isn’t actually a fashion school in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but a surprising number of tests at the vocational school allow you to get some bonus Style points when you complete them:

Use Style enhancing Items

Unlike the other stats, there’s not just one item that you can use to increase your Style stat, but three! They are as follows:

  • ‘Street Dandy’ book: available as a reward from the Batting Cages or Shogi. 
  • Scalp D: a medicinal shampoo which gives you a small boost to Style. Sold at Kinka Pharmacy and Tsuruha Drug Store. 
  • Twisted Fragrance: another item that gives a boost to Style, sold at the Welcome Pharmacy and Tsuruha Drug Store.

Pay a stat-enhancing NPC

There are two NPCs that you can pay in order to raise your Style stat. Both appear randomly when you load into an area - so you should check the location where they can appear as often as you can in order to try to catch them.

  • A man can appear north of Hidamari Castle - you must have first finished the associated dungeon and have the keycard to get into this area. He charges 100,000 Yen, but raises every stat by 10 points.
  • A woman in Kamurocho sometimes appears in an alleyway jsut north of the Batting Cages. For 30,000 Yen, she can boost Style and Intelligence stats.

Complete Part-Time Hero Challenge Quests

Finally, you can of course complete Part-Time Hero objectives to raise Style. Find these in the Part-Time hero menu under Challenges, split into categories of things to do:

  • In the Adventure category, doing things like eating at restaurants, taking photos, using taxis and collecting CDs will all give Style levels at certain milestones.
  • In Battle, acquiring a range of different types of equipment will hit milestones that help to level up style, as will defeating certain types of enemy.
  • In minigames, watching movies at the cinema successfully will help level up style, as will racking up millions of points in OutRun in the arcade.